Dear friends of the Russia & America Good Will Association and antiwar colleagues!In stead of wasting global resources for destruction and killing people in Ukraine and elsewhere, the USA, Europe and Russia must unite their efforts to create an area of Peace and Prosperity in all of Northern Hemishere from Vancouver to Vladivostok -- this was the main message of the US-Russia Forum in which I participated in Moscow on September 8 and 9, 2014.

The Forum was organized by Russian Association of International Cooperation and American University in Moscow headed by its founder and president Eduard Lozansky. About hundred scholars, politicians and journalists from the US, Russia, Germany, Denmark and Finland discussed "Advancing a Constructive Agenda for US-Russia Relations" .

After a day of reports and discussions at President Arbat Hotel on September 8, next day the FORUM moved to MGIMO, the prestigious Moscow State University of International Relation, the chief incubator of Russian diplomats. The main agenda here was Gilbert Doctorow's proposal to re-create the Committee on East-West Accord. Dr. Doctorow is an American scholar and business leader currently residing in Brussels, Belgium. He is also a RAGA associate.

Here are the highlights of Gilbert's speech:

--all our journalists (write) that the present confrontation between Russia and the West is the worst crisis since the end of the original Cold War in 1989...I would say it is among the worst crises since the beginning of the original Cold War. We have approached the risk level of the Cuban Missile Crisis (of October 1962).--We suffer from "the apparent loss of all sense of fear of nuclear holocaust, a totally unfounded complacency. Our senior statesmen and politicians behave as if the Star Wars mythology of the 1980s has become reality and an entirely unproven ‘iron dome’ were in place". --"this belittlement of Russia (is) a cardinal difference from the days of the original Cold War, when Russia/the USSR was morally condemned but always respected or feared as posing an existential threat to the United States and Europe"...--the original Committee for East-West Accord was created in 1974 to keep the nuclear-armed MAD antagonists talking and soothing the US-USSR relations during the worst years of the Cold War...--"The doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) kept the peace through the original Cold War...what we have today on the US-European side is a belief in survivability of nuclear attack, and a First Strike mentality has taken hold..".--"I come to you today with the proposal to re-create a platform for a common sense approach to relations with Russia that was founded in Washington in 1974 and closed its doors in 1992 when the Cold War had ceased to exist and a golden age of friendly and constructive international relationships with Russia seemed to have arrived..."--"the Russia of today presents a starkly different political landscape from the USSR of the 1970s and 80s, with a newly emerged and vibrant civil society that constitutes our natural counterpart-interlocutor in any effort to build bridges and establish reasonable and just state-to-state relations."

In fact, not only RT, but also Russia's main TV Channel One reported about the Forumhttp://www.1tv.ru/news/polit/267221

I strongly supported Doctorow's proposal, saying: "We should stress not the differences... but commonalities between us."

"Our guiding symbol should be neither the Russian double-headed Eagle, nor the American Bold Eagle, nor any other bird of pray. We should not project belligerence. When I travelled across the States as a contract interpreter for US Department of State with various groups from the Former Soviet Union, everybody liked best the state symbol of Louisiana, the Pelican the Provider who teaches the needy how to fish. I am convinced that the Bird of Europe, hopefully a Pelican, will not fly very far unless it relies on both of its wings, its Western extension, the USA, and its Easter extension, Russia."

The Forum adopted by acclamation Gilbert Doctorow's proposal to create an organization, East-West Dialog (the name could change) to coordinate all peace-loving activities in the US, EU, and Russia.

At the end of the Forum, I thanked Eduard Lozansky and his wife Tatiana for their 25-year long effort for bettering US-Russia relations and presented them my new book, Новая Россия: от комунизма к национальному возрождению. Originally written and published in the United States in 1991 under the title "Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth", the book was part of a series of publications of the Center for Contemporary Russian Studies founded by Professor Nicolai Petro at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. At the time when the "best and the brightest" of the West were beholden to Communism and Gorbachev's half-hearted reforms, we introduced Americans to a new emerging Russia that is neither a clone of the Soviet Union, nor recreation of Russian Empire, but a new political, social, economic, and spiritual that the USA and EU must respect as a serious global player.

RAGA will be happy to serve as a conduit for all pacific and practicable suggestions the readers of this pages can offer. The East-West Dialog would need an office, small staff, and many journalist volunteers with access to facebook, twitter, and, of course, funds. Suggestions and inquiries should be sent to:Gilbert DoctorowEdward Lozansky or Vladislav Krasnov

I thank everyone who came to this Forum, especially those who responded to my invitation. I enjoyed meeting and talking to a number of new people who may receive this Newsletter anonymously before a more personal email exchange.

You may enjoy information below that is conducive to peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine which now has fortunately reached cease-fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEMjiTgZKyg&list=UUpwvZwUam-URkxB7g4USKpgPublished on Sep 10, 2014A troubled relationship or a transforming international system? As the West and Russia turn away from each other, can we expect more tensions or merely indifference? And is this a divorce or just a long-term separation?

Sharon Tennison's article A REALITY CHECK FROM RUSSIA

http://www.russiaotherpointsofview.com/2014/09/reality-check-from-russia.html#more.Sharon, the founder of the Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI), was one of the speakers at the forum and demonstrated the importance of grass-root peace initiatives. Her affiliated site Russia: Other Points of View which I often cite in these letters, has proved to be a crucial source of well-informed opinion

Nicolai Petro, Eastern Ukraine: The Neverending CrisisThe National InterestSeptember 3, 2014. Professor Petro was also one of the speakers at the Forum.

<<the Ukrainian public remains sharply divided over the legitimacy of the protests on the Maidan, and the coup that removed President Yanukovych from office. While there is little love for Yanukovych anywhere in Ukraine, three-quarters of the populations in Ukraine's eastern cities regard the Euromaidan protests as illegal. Specifically, two-thirds of Donbass residents consider the Maidanto have been "an armed overthrow of the government, organized by the opposition, with the assistance of the West.">>

NationofChange / Op-EdPublished: Sunday 14 September 2014http://www.nationofchange.org/usnato-and-russiachina-direct-collision-course-1410698606<<We might say that Ukraine is the eye of this “gathering storm” or, more accurately, it’s the point at which a small spark could ignite a military firestorm. If NATO continues to aggressively attempt to recruit Ukraine into its organization then that could easily happen. And if anyone thinks Putin will back down and yield to the power of U.S./NATO then they better think again because he will not.>>

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Malice to None. Good Will to All. Peace and Justice to the World.Mиру мир и благоволение в сердцах!

Sincerely,W George Krasnow (=Vladislav Krasnov)President, RAGA

Disclaimer: All statements in this report are an opinion. Act at your own risk. RAGA News